The uses of picture image transmission apparatus in medical procedures is well known and are known as fiberscopes. The fiberscopes have found particular use in surgery to enable the physician to remotely observe the interior of a body cavity. Still other industrial uses have developed for fiberscopes such as remote inspection of mechanical or nuclear equipment to enable a user to determine what is happening at a hazardous or inaccessible location. The fiberscopes are used to provide a continuous picture image to enable a user to see what is occurring in a remote location. In contrast the present invention is directed toward transmission of a multiplicity of independent streams of data from one location to another where the data is in the form of optical signals. The optical signals can take a variety of different shapes, however, optical signals such as optical data bits, i.e light pulses of intermittent duration are especially suited for transmission with the present invention.
In the present invention light pulses of a predetermined intensity and a predetermined duration can be used to transmit information from one end of a fiber-optic strand to the other end of the fiber-optic strand. By controlling the rate or frequency of the light pulses one can transmit optical data signals in light pulse form from one location to another through a fiber optic strand. One of the problems with transmission of optical data signals from an array of sources through fiber-optic strands is that it requires a time consuming and costly coupling of both the sources and the detectors to the ends of the fiber-optic strands.
That is, it requires a precise physical alignment of the ends of the fiber-optic strands with both the sources and the detectors. With multiple parallel paths the alignment of the emitter and the fiber optic strands can become both time consuming and costly. The present invention eliminates the need for precise alignment in parallel data transmission by use of multiple parallel fiber-optic strands to transmit optical data signals without having to perform the costly and time consuming precise alignment of the sources or the detectors to the individual fiber-optic strands.
If one were to transfer in parallel optical data signals through single strands of optical fiber the optical data signals would each have to be first coupled and aligned with one end of the individual strands of optical fiber. The optical data signals then pass through the optical fiber and emerge from the other end of the strands of optical fiber with the other end of the strands of optical fiber coupled and aligned into receivers or detectors. The present invention passes each separate optical data signal with each portion of the optical data signals being simultaneously transmitted over one or more strands of adjacent and parallel optical strands in a coherent optic fiber bundle. This parallel data transmission could be in either digital or analog form. By using multiple strands of coherently bound optical fiber the present invention permits passage of streams of multiple optical data signals without requiring precise coupling of either the sources or detectors to individual optical fibers. As the portions of data signals emerge from the multiple strands of the coherent optic fiber bundle the portions of data signals are effectively recombined into optical data signals of the original nature with negligible loss of signal strength or integrity due to separation of the signal by the multiple strands of optical fiber.
An advantage of the present invention is that it enables computing systems to transmit optical data in parallel form, historically, optical transmission has been of serial form because parallel optical transmission was not cost effective. Consequently, the requirement of serial transmission limited the usefulness of optical interconnections in computing systems. The present invention eliminates many obstacles to parallel transmission of optical information and provides parallel optical data transmission for computing systems.
Another advantage is the ability to increase the number of parallel channels of the parallel transmission without having to recable.